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If you abjure a belief or a way of behaving, you state publicly that you will give it up or reject it.
When you accede to a demand or proposal, you agree to it, especially after first disagreeing with it.
When you acknowledge the truth of something, you accept or admit it.
If you acquiesce to something, you allow it to happen by doing what someone wants without putting up a struggle or voicing your own concerns.
When you allege that someone has done something, you claim or assert that they have done it without showing any proof.
An altercation is a noisy disagreement or heated argument.
When one thing belies a second, it hides the true situation, producing a false idea or impression about that second thing.
If someone describes something as bilious, they mean that it is so disgusting and unpleasant that they feel like vomiting.
Someone who has a bristling personality is easily offended, annoyed, or angered.
Someone cedes land or power to someone else by giving it to them, often because of political or military pressure.
When you concur with another person, you agree with or have the same opinion as them.
To contravene a law, rule, or agreement is to do something that is not allowed or is forbidden by that law, rule, or agreement.
If someone will countenance something, they will approve, tolerate, or support it.
If you espouse an idea, principle, or belief, you support it wholeheartedly.
If you impugn someone’s motives or integrity, you say that they do not deserve to be trusted.
People who are ingenuous are excessively trusting and believe almost everything that people tell them, especially because they have not had much life experience.
An irrefutable argument or statement cannot be proven wrong; therefore, it must be accepted because it is certain.
An irrevocable action or decision is impossible to change, reverse, or stop.
If you rebuff someone, you give an unfriendly answer to a suggestion or offer of help; you hastily turn that person away.
If you recant, you publicly announce that your once firmly held beliefs or statements were wrong and that you no longer agree with them.
To remonstrate with someone is to tell that person that you strongly disapprove of something they have said or done.
If you repudiate something, you state that you do not accept or agree with it and no longer want to be connected with it in any way.
The veracity of something is its truthfulness.
The verity of something is the truth or reality of it.
Verb
gainsay
GAYN-say
Context
My mother is considered the top baker in our family, but when Aunt Sully visits she gainsays that widely held opinion by denying that Mom is the best. During a cake-baking contest, Sully gainsaid or went against the judge’s decision that Mom’s chocolate torte was the winner: Sully vocally voted for her own almond mousse cake instead. Unfortunately, my aunt embarrassed my mother by gainsaying or opposing the prize in front of everyone.
Quiz:Try again!
What does it mean to gainsay something?
Gains? Aye! Who would gainsay saying Aye! to soaring stock gains?
Examples
Greatness is great power, producing great effects. It is not enough that a man has great power in himself, he must shew it to all the world in a way that cannot be hid or gainsaid.
— William Hazlitt
The absence of a democratic mandate means that health authorities can not easily gainsay the public’s preferences for access over outcomes or its rejection of other criteria used by professionals to support decision making.
—
BNET
Who can gainsay British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has made aid to Africa a centerpiece of the G8 summit of industrial powers this week, when he calls Africa a scar on the world’s conscience?
—
Newsweek
Raymond Hitchcock, although it is conceded that there would be none to gainsay him if he chose to exercise the powers of autocracy.
—
The New York Times
Word Ingredients
gain
→
against
say
→
say
When you gainsay someone’s opinion, you “say” something “against” it.
